A feline trauma day

Kuro-Raimei had a tough day today. She was unceremoniously scooped up and put into her carrier at 7:00 in the morning, which was scary enough, but then taken into the car.

Somehow this "car" thing is a portal between dimensions or something, because when next the car door opened there was a cacophony of noise—she couldn't see what was causing it, but it was as if great careening beasts were roaring back and forth just meters away from her. Then she was carried into The Scary Building.

At least the noise had stopped then, but when she was let out of her carrier it was in what the humans have called the "exam room," where she was made to stand on this thing that displayed numbers. Then she was put back into the carrier and taken away from her human.

HUMAN! DO NOT LEAVE ME IN THE SCARY PLACE! The shouting was to no avail.

She was taken to a larger room, again removed from her comfy carrier, and placed in a cage. What was going on?! Had she misbehaved? Why was she here? I WANT TO GO HOME!

Then, the torture began. First a needle, which these strange lady humans used to extract blood. They made what were intended to be comforting noises, but these were strange humans that smelled weird. She generally doesn't like humans she doesn't know and she especially didn't like these humans, no matter what noises they made. Then back in the cage for a while, then out and onto a big table for another needle. This one didn't take any blood out, though, this one put something in. WHAT THE FUCK, HOO-MAHNS?! WHERE IS MY HUMAN? WHAT DID YOU DO WITH HIM?

She began to get groggy and loopy, then fell asleep. But not the good sleep with dreams of stalking birds and putting that punk Zephyr in his place, this had no dreams at all. It was scary.

When she woke up, she was back in the cage again. She couldn't see clearly and her brain wasn't working right. She had a bald spot on her foot and was sore in that foot and, especially, in her mouth. What foul horrors had she been subjected to?

The pain in her mouth was dull and her mind wasn't processing it with any clarity, but it seemed like...yes, she had fewer teeth in there. Where are my teeth?! She couldn't ponder it for long, though, as sleep came again. Not the same kind of scary sleep, but not the regular dreams-of-climbing-window-screens sleep either.

She woke again to being prodded and examined by another human. This one was vaguely familiar, she was pretty sure she had smelled this one before, but it was impossible to place in her groggy state. She was put back in the cage and went back to sleep.

Finally she was taken out of the cage for the last time, put back into her carrier, and taken to a big room with big windows where she was handed off to someone else. This time—MY HUMAN! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? She tried to convey the traumas she'd been experiencing, but her brain was still jumbled and the only sounds she could make were warbles at low volume. She was still frightened, but at least her human had returned. He brought her into the car again, and soon the car door opened and she was lifted back into familiar surroundings. When the carrier was opened, she walked out onto her own floor atop her stairs. This was an enormous relief.

Still, she wished her human had opened her carrier at the bottom of the stairs rather than the top, because she had to immediately go down them to go to the poop box. And since her mobility was somehow impaired, perhaps by the same thing that was causing her scrambled thinking, the process of using the box was sloppy and undignified. She had to leave the box with some of the smelly refuse stuck to her fur and was in no state to tidy herself up. Holy moly, how embarrassing. She made her way back to the top of the stairs and her human cleaned her up, which was both welcome and humiliating.

Her human brought her into the room with the big screens and the clickity-clackity thing she usually liked to walk across and placed her on the carpeted shelf that was a favored perch, but she didn't want to be there. NO, she said, and unsteadily teetered as she hopped down to the floor and stumbled back to the stairs. Just one step down, she thought, I can make that easy enough. The stair was good—it was narrow enough to preclude the other cats from crowding her if they chose to try and it provided a corner she could lean into for support. It was also away from any windows or lights, and for whatever reason her eyes had been super sensitive ever since waking up in the cage.

She didn't know what the hell had happened to her this day. It was all so scary and strange. But she was now home again, her human was there, even Zephyr and Mizuki were there and not bothering her, and she could relax.

Mostly.

But she'd be very grateful when this groggy mind-scrambling wore off and she felt normal again.

Meanwhile, she'd have to get used to having fewer teeth.